Some equipment utilized as an information processing apparatus or a robot apparatus includes a camera and executes a predetermined decision by monitoring an external environment or a movement of an imaging object through the camera. As one of such equipment, an active camera apparatus of which viewpoint changes by rotating the camera as a human's eye is known (For example, Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) PH11-355622).
In this active camera apparatus, the camera is located in a body of a ball shell type. This camera is supported by a gimbal mechanism installed into the body, and rotated around two axes mutually crossed in the body. The gimbal mechanism is comprised of a pair of gimbals. One gimbal is located inside of the body, and the other gimbal is located outside of the body.
A camera actuator is located outside of the body. The camera actuator has a ring wire bound to the camera. By moving this wire along a predetermined direction, the camera in the body is actuated.
In such active camera apparatus, one gimbal is set in the body. Accordingly, the camera can be moved within a large actuation area. As a result, the camera can input an image from a wide field of view.
However, as mentioned-above, in the active camera apparatus of the prior art, the camera actuator is located outside of the body. Accordingly, the camera actuator is not protected from the external environment such as a dust, moisture, and a heat. Furthermore, the whole component of the active camera apparatus including the camera actuator becomes undesirably large.